Friday, July 29, 2011

CHAPTER III.

LAZARUS, THE BOUND MAN.

Now, reader, we have noticed Lazarus the sick man a type of the child born into the world with the carnal mind in it, and we have noticed Lazarus the dead man a type of the child when it comes to the years of accountability and chooses sin and dies and becomes dead in trespasses and in sins. Now we have before us Lazarus, the bound man. We see from the case of Lazarus that it was the custom in the Oriental world to bind a corpse when they got it ready for burial. Just why they would bind a dead man is a mystery to me. It doesn’t look reasonable, but we see that it was done. It may be possible that the Lord allowed them to do it in order to teach us some spiritual lessons that would be profitable to us in our day, for we know that sin will not only kill the man but we know that it will bind him after he is dead.
Just as truly as Lazarus was bound the sinners in our country are bound also. We read that Lazarus was bound hand and foot, and we see that the sinners of our day are bound hand and foot also. Lazarus was helpless and the sinners are helpless. Lazarus had no power to deliver himself from the cords that were around him, and the sinner has no power to deliver himself from the cords that the devil has put around him. We read in Psalms 107:10: “Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron.” That, of course, is the picture of the sinner as King David saw him and he says that the fellow is bound in affliction and iron. In the next verse he tells us why the fellow was bound. He says it was “Because he had rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High.” how much like the twentieth century sinners that is. You can see them if you will look.
Now reader, we want to read a verse in 2 Tim. 2:26: “And that they may recover themselves out of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” You will notice that somebody here is described as being in the snare of the devil, and not only in his snare but taken by him captive at his will, and don’t you see that if the devil has a fellow in his snare and is taking him captive at his will, that he has the fellow bound? How could he take him captive if the fellow was not bound by the devil? Of course you know that you meet sinners every day that are as completely bound by the devil as they would be if they had chains on them. I have seen sinners that were afraid to try to escape from the devil, they were so completely overpowered by him. I have heard people say, How does the devil bind a fellow? Well, he begins by first putting the carnal mind in the human heart, and the child is born with depravity in its heart. The carnal mind leads him astray and he chooses sin, and now he is dead in trespasses and in sins. After he is dead morally the devil begins to put the cords on him and bind him. One of the first cords that the devil puts on him is the cord of disobedience. Two or three years ago you had a sweet baby, but to-day you have a stubborn, hard-headed disobedient boy. You are surprised to see him as stubborn as he is and wonder who he takes it after. The next thing you know, your boy is a profane swearer and it almost breaks your heart but the devil has put another cord on him. Don’t you see Lazarus bound and don’t you see your own son bound also?
The next string that the devil puts on him will be tobacco; now he is a cigarette fiend and will smoke and lie about it, and tell his mother that he never smoked in his life. When she catches up with him and he has to own up he will get mad and swear right in the presence of his old mother, and she is afraid to say a word. He begins to threaten to leave home if he can’t have his way, and his mother thinks it is all because he has been keeping bad company. Well, of course, he has. The devil has been after him ever since he was born and is still on his trail; and the devil may take that nice boy of yours and put him in the chain gang, and finally in the state prison, and finally in an awful hell.
Don’t you see that the young man is bound by the devil and led by him captive at his will? When your boy was a babe and kicked and screamed and fought and bit and turned over chairs and threw things off the table, it was so funny that everybody thought it was cute in the little fellow. When he takes one of his spells now it is not as funny as it used to be. His mother sits down and weeps by the hour. What is the trouble now? Well, Lazarus is dead and they have bound him for the burial and his friends are weeping over him. Your babe is no longer a smiling babe; he is a great rough sinner and bound by the cords of disobedience, profanity, tobacco, strong drink, Sabbath desecration, lust and anger; and many of them are bound by the cords of theft and murder. Oh my, how different he looks now to what he did before the devil put the cords around him! You see, reader, that the devil laid his plans in the garden, and he is working out his plans in the field. Yes, in the fields of life. How busy he is; not a moment to lose. His victims are driven by him just like they were beasts.
Again the devil not only has power to bind the souls of men but he seems to have power to bind their bodies. In proof of that fact I offer you the following Scriptures: Look at Luke’s gospel, 13:16: “And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” The Master Himself said that this woman was the daughter of Abraham, and He also said that Satan had her bound for eighteen years. How many have I seen that Satan had bound and put them on their beds of affliction. I have seen them all over the United States as completely bound by Satan physically as they were morally. He is an awful devil and he hates Christ and wants to defeat Him and he wants to rule this country. I have seen some people that I think the devil knew he never would get their souls and he seemed to afflict their bodies to hinder their life’s work. I as much believe the devil tried for years to kill me as I believe that I am alive to-day.
Now we will turn and read Acts 10:38: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Here the reader will notice that Jesus was to heal all that were oppressed of the devil, so we see that he (the devil), had power to bind a woman for eighteen years and here he has power to oppress or to afflict mankind. We also see that Jesus had power to heal all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him. You may take a man or a woman that has a fine mind and a fine, strong body, and a soul all on fire for God, and they can do much to the kingdom of the devil; he knows it as well as we do and he hates such people.
I will only speak of one other binding, and that is the case of the man in the tombs recorded in the eighth chapter of Matthew, the fifth chapter of Mark, and the eighth chapter of Luke. Saint Mark says of this man that, no man could bind him; Saint Luke says that he was driven of the devil. Mark you, he doesn’t say that he was led or tolled of the devil, but that he was driven of the devil. They also tell us that he wore no clothes, that he made his dwellings among the tombs and that he cut himself with the stones. There was a man that the devil had bound mentally, morally and physically, and if it had not been for the fact that Jesus of Nazareth went by that man would have stayed in that awful condition until the day of his death. What would we do without a Savior? Just think of a world with a devil in it and no Christ in it. If we did not have the Holy Spirit in the world to restrain and check and drive back the devil, what is it that he would not do? My, man, it almost makes your blood freeze in your veins to think of living in a world without a Savior in it. I believe that the sinners of the country are restrained by the grace of God, and while they may not know it, yet I believe it is true, and we cannot tell what they would do if it were not for the grace of God. Just look at the man in the tombs and you have the human family under the dominion of the devil instead of under the dominion of the Son of God. Now, reader, if you can see one ray of hope there I wish you would show it to me, for I am frank to say that the picture is as black as the midnight hour to me. When I see men and women going on in sin and rejecting the Savior I wonder if they want to go to the tombs.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

CHAPTER II.

LAZARUS, THE DEAD MAN.

Now, reader, for sometime we have been looking at Lazarus, the sick man, but now we have come to the second stage in the history of this remarkable man. Just as truly as Lazarus the sick man is a type of the child that is born into the world with the carnal mind in its heart, Lazarus, the dead man, is a type of the child when it comes to the years of accountability, and chooses sin and dies; and now the child is dead in trespasses and in sins; and just as turyly as Lazarus was dead physically the child is dead spiritually, or morally. As you look at Lazarus you don’t see a sick man, you see a dead man; and as you look at your boy you don’t see a child with only the carnal mind in him, you see a sinner dead in trespasses and in sins. The teaching of the old Book is that the sinner is dead. We first saw the child a sinner by nature, and now we have before us a sinner by choice; quite a difference. So you see the child chose sin and died.
We read in Romans 7:8, “That being dead wherein we were held.” That is a picture of a dead man bound by death. What an awful thought! A double death it seems. Again in Romans 7:11 we read, :For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” You see the thing put the man to death. It slew him. What was it that slew him? Well, he says that it was sin. When did it slay him? Just at the time that it slew you. When he came to the years of accountability and chose sin, he died morally,; now he is dead – not a sick man, but a dead man. He was not dead physically or he could not have written this letter; he was dead spiritually, and sin, the old man, killed him just like he has all the rest of the human family.
We read again in Eph. 2:1, 2: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Reader, just see what all the apostle says about these people: First, they were dead, and they were dead in sins. That proves that they had died somewhere back down their trail, and he said that in time past they had walked according to the course of this world. He also said that they had walked according to the prince of the power of the air, and that these children had in them the spirit of disobedience. What was that spirit of disobedience? Nothing more or less than the old man or the carnal mind, or the indwelling sin, as Paul calls it, or the old Adam, or the roots of bitterness, as he calls it in another place in the old Book.
Now we will turn to Paul’s letter to the Colossians and read the thirteenth verse of the second chapter. Notice what he says: “And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” In this text we have before us a dead man, and then we see him quickened, or made alive, which proves that the man was dead. You see a dead Lazarus and a dead sinner. Lazarus was dead physically and the sinner is dead spiritually. One is without physical life and the other is without spiritual life. The sinner is as bad off spiritually as Lazarus is physically; there is no difference in them. If Lazarus ever gets out of that grave there will have to be a miracle performed, for he is a dead man; and if that sinner ever gets out of the grave of spiritual death there will have to be a miracle performed, for he is a dead man – just as dead spiritually as Lazarus was physically. He is dead to God and to holines, to rightousness, eternal life, and to all that is good and pure; and he is alive to all that is bad. What a pity. Oh my, how many I have seen just like that.
Now in I Tim. 5:6 we read: “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” There is the picture of a worldly woman, a society-runner, a pleasure-seeker, a fun-lover, a God-forgetter, a Christ-despiser, and a blood-rejecter. Paul says that she is dead. Yes, and so was Lazarus; so you see that the type still holds good. She is alive to everything that belongs to this world; she is alive socially, she is alive mentally, and she is alive financially; she is only dead to her eternal welfare. What an awful thought; dead to eternal life and alive to eternal death! Somebody may say poor Lazarus. Yes, and somebody ought to say poor woman; she is as bad off as Lazarus ever wasl how could she be in a worse fix than she is in? Paul says that she is dead while she liveth, and so was I and so were you, my friend.
There is nothing beautiful about death; nothing lovely, nothing that looks encouraging or hopeful. If it were not for the fact that our blessed Christ has promised us a glorious resurrection, I don’t see how I ever could bear the thought of going down to the grave for it makes my very blood run cold when I think of the grave. If it is my Father’s will, I would rather preach holiness until Jesus comes and then go up with Him and not go by the grave at all, but I may have it to do, as my brethren have had to do.

Monday, July 25, 2011

CHAPTER I: LAZARUS THE SICK MAN

Lazarus is a type of the whole human family. No other man in the New Testament covers as much ground as the man Lazarus; he is a type of the sinner in every stage of life, and also a type of the Christian from the young convert to the old saint, as he passeth through the pearly gates into the beautiful city. The first mention that is made of Lazarus is in the eleventh chapter of St. John’s gospel and the first verse. We read: “Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus.”
The reader will notice that the first mention that is made of Lazarus is that he is a sick man. We read nothing of his parents; we suppose that he was an orphan boy. There is not one word about his mother or father in the New Testament. If he had a brother he is not referred to; we only hear of his two sisters, Mary and Martha. The first time that we hear of Lazarus he is sick. The Book says nothing of his boyhood days, and in fact, we hear but little of Lazarus himself. We read nothing of his standing in the community; not a word about his education or his political or religious views, but we suppose he was a very religious man from the fact that the Master loved to go to and abide in his little home in the village of Bethany. This was one of the homes of the Master, as He trod through the earth a homeless man in search of an opportunity to do something for the other fellow. Bless His dear name forever and ever. How I love Him and how good He has been to me!
Now, in the first place Lazarus, as a sick man, is the type of the newborn babe. When the child is born into this world it comes to see us with the carnal mind in its heart and is unwell morally. Lazarus was unwell physically and the child is unwell spiritually, so the first glimpse that we get of Lazarus and the newborn babe is that they are both unwell, and if we will look at them for a few minutes we will see that the disease proves fatal in each case. We know that Lazarus died and if we will look we will see that the child dies also. For a little while let’s take a look at the moral condition of the child and see if he isn’t born into this world with the disease of sin in him. We will notice first Isaiah 1:2-6: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel, unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.”
Now, reader, I submit to your honest judgment the above description of the unregenerated human heart. Does it not look like the human family is in a depraved state? If that is not total depravity what would you call it? They are put down below the ox and the ass, two of the dullest dumb brutes in the field, and they are both ahead of the children of Israel. Oh, yes, my friend, the human family is born with the old man in the heart and he begins his work as soon as the child is born; he doesn’t wait until the child is grown to put him at the thing that he knows is contrary to the will of God; but as soon as the child is born the devil is ready to give him a job, and it is not long until he has him on the way to destruction.
I feel sure that King David wrote under the inspiration of the blessed Holy Ghost. See what he says about the child, Psalms 51:5: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother canceive me.” Again, before we pass from the Psalmist, we will notice the 58th Psalm and the third verse: “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.” This doesn’t look like they waited to be grown to go into sin. I have said it a number of times, and you may have said it before I ever thought of it, that every child that was ever born in Texas lied before it could talk and stole before it could walk. The Psalmist said that he was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did his mother conceive him. Well, that is the way they are all born into this world.
I have known children to be born into the homes of good, religious parents and these children were never conquered in the lives. I have known some good Methodist mothers to name their baby boy for one of the bishops and consecrate him to the Lord to be made bishop, and he was elected before he was two years old. You could go to the home and the two-year-old boy was making all of the appointments; he commanded and his mother had to obey; he screamed and whooped and yelled, turned over chairs and slammed the doors, and would get up and throw the teacups, and the knives and forks off the table, and his mother and all of the other children had to obey him or have one of the biggest rackets that you have ever heard in all of your life. So you see, my friend, that Lazarus as a sick man is a pretty good representative of the child when it is born into the world with the old man in its heart. Lazarus was sick and the child is not well by any means.
Now for a little while we want to look at some Scriptures over in the New Testament. First, we want to look at the third verse of the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and just see for ourselves: “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.” The apostle says here that we are by nature the children of wrath even as others. Notice first that he doesn’t say we are the children of wrath by choice nor does he say that we are the children of wrath by practice; but notice what he does say; he says that we are the children of wrath by nature. Now reader, if you had a tree that was by nature a tree of wrath, what kind of fruit do you think would grow on it? Well, we can find out by going to Gallatians 5:19. Just see for yourself, and oh my, it almost takes your breath. “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which the these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, varience, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.” I submit to your intelligence as an honest man or woman, don’t you think that the above crowd is in a state of total, yes in a state of teetotal depravity. That crowd of people is qualified to commit any sin that is known to the human family, and yet I have heard much about our beautiful human nature; but just look children and see for yourself. I don’t suppose that a man could find a harder crowd this side of the pit than the above.
But before we leave Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we want to notice the 17th verse of the 5th chapter: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” The reader will notice here that the word flesh refers to the carnal mind, or the old man or inbred sin, whichever you would rather call it. Of course the word flesh there could not refer to your bones and blood, for the Spirit of God and your bones could not be contrary the one to the other; but there is something in man that is contrary to the Spirit of God, and of course it is the carnal mind, for St. Paul says in Romans 8:7 that, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” So you see at a glance that Romans 8:7 explains Gal. 5:17, where Paul says that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. If the child doesn’t bring the carnal mind into this world with him when he is born of the flesh, then he must receive it when he is born of the Spirit, and you could not think of a thing of that kind. But at the same time we see a man here with two minds in him and each one wants to rule and each one wants to sit on the throne and hold the reins of your life and do the driving.
Now reader, the only way to make these Scriptures plain is to see them in their true light. The child is born into the world with the carnal mind in him and when he is born of the Spirit he receives the spiritual mind; he already had the carnal mind and now he becomes a double-minded man, both carnal and spiritual, and the war is between the carnal mind and the spiritual mind. When we are born of the Spirit we receive the spiritual mind and when we are baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire we get rid of the carnal mind and that leaves the mind of Christ in our heart to reign without a rival. If you will look, you will see that Lazarus as a sick man is a type of the child that is born into this world with the old man in its heart and if you are not satisfied with the above Scriptures, at your leisure you might read St. Mark 7:21, 22, and when you get through with that lesson you might read Romans 3:10-20. By that time you will be convinced that the human family is born out of gear and out of harmony with God, out of harmony with itself, and out of harmony with the world round about it.
Is it not a fact that two old sinners can’t hardly live in the same community, and get along with each other; sometimes they don’t do it, but fall out and fight and go to law with each other. Again I have seen boys not ten years old meet and fight every Sunday for nearly a year and almost kill each other, and nobody think anything of it at all. Again I have seen small children two or three years old fall out and fight just like beasts, and I have seen their mothers pull them apart and whip them and it seemed to do no good. Now the question naturally arises in the mind of a fellow if the child is not a depraved being, what is the matter with it? Don’t you see a sick Lazarus there, and don’t you see that the disease has proven fatal and that Lazarus is dangerously ill?

THE AUTHOR’S PREFACE

Dear Readers: I am not going to beg your pardon for sending out another book, but I am going to ask you to please overlook my mistakes and blunders, and be just as patient with me as you possibly can. I want to thank all of the dear brethren in the field who have given me any light and help on this remarkable man called Lazarus. I heard one sermon preached on Lazarus, by a Methodist pastor at Omaha, Ill., a few years ago; that is the only sermon I ever heard preached on Lazarus. I also read a little sketch in one of Dr. Carradine’s books on Lazarus, but the man who gave me more help on Lazarus than any other man was Dr. McAmmons, a Methodist pastor in Chicago, Ill. Apart from these three men I never heard a man in my life say anthing about Lazarus; but to me he is one of the most interesting characters that is discussed in the New Testament, and for the past three or four years I have been studying Lazarus as a type of the whole human family, and to my mind he comes nearer being a type of the whole human family than any other one character that is found between the lids of the Bible. There is no condition in life but what Lazarus cover the ground. As a sick man he is a type of the newborn babe with the carnal mind in its heart, and as a dead man he is a type of the child when it comes to the years of accountability, and chooses sin and dies, and is now dead in trespasses and in sins; and as a bound man he is a type of the child when he has gone into sin and has been bound by the devil; as an entombed man he is a type of the sinner when he gives up all hope, and goes into the tomb of despair; as a putrified man he is a type of the old sinner when he becomes sin-hardened and corrupted in his whole moral nature. Lazarus called out of the tomb is a type of the new birth; Lazarus set free is a type of the experience of sanctification; Lazarus feasting with his Lord is one of the most beautiful types of the life of holiness that can be found in the old Book; Lazarus persecuted by the high priest is one of the most striking incidents in the life of every holiness man. Just as sure as you get sanctified you are sure to have the high priest on your trail. It never fails. Just as sure as you get filled with the Holy Ghost and go to feasting with your Lord your testimonies will stir up the carnal mind in the man that has not got a clean heart, and he will become jealous of you, and the fight will be on, O Christian soldier. Lazarus, the soul winner, is a beautiful type of the holiness evangelist of the present day. A Spirit-filled man is a soul winner. It cannot be otherwise. It must be so in spite of men and devils. BUD ROBINSON